Good news for coaster enthusiasts and Disney fans: that much-anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy attraction coming to Epcot will indeed be a roller coaster. At the park’s 35th Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, Vice President of Epcot, Melissa Valiquette confirmed to the media that the ride replacing the former Universe of Energy will be a brand new coaster experience. The ride’s manufacturer is currently unknown.

As of right now, Epcot is the only Disney theme park in the world not to have a roller coaster. While Test Track is a high-speed thrill ride, it is technically a powered slot car attraction and does not classify as a coaster. With this new attraction though, Epcot will finally get an RCDB page of its own.

As stated before, the ride, which was announced at this summer’s D23 event, will be built on the former site of the Universe of Energy. The pavilion, up until recently, was home to an arguably outdated show called Ellen’s Energy Adventure, a show that involved Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye talking about the wonders of fossil fuels…oh and there’s a dinosaur diorama worked in there somehow. After years of waning popularity, the pavilion closed earlier this year in order to make way for this brand new attraction.

If you ask me, it’s about time that the park received a massive E-ticket attraction like this. I always thought that Epcot could have used a roller coaster, and with the fine folks at Disney Imagineering involved, this one in particular is sure to blow you away.

Sesame Place; the Pennsylvania theme park not too far from Six Flags Great Adventure known for being themed after Jim Henson’s classic children’s series. Owned by SeaWorld, this park isn’t known for its thrill rides, but it no doubt has a special place in peoples hearts. As of right now, the only roller coaster to ever open at the park is Vapor Trail, a Vekoma Junior coaster that was added in 1998. It’s been almost two decades since this park got a new coaster, but for young coaster enthusiasts in the making, 2018 may see yet another major attraction coming to Sesame Place.

The park recently teased a new attraction on social media, referring to it as the “biggest, grouchiest” ride. The teaser featured the famous Oscar the Grouch, indicating that the ride will be themed to him. A small family park like Sesame Place getting a new coaster may seem hard to believe, but when a park teases a ride as being their biggest investment yet, it usually indicates a new coaster.

As for what kind of coaster this could be, speculation is already running wild. Considering that Busch Gardens Williamsburg just got a family GCI named Invadr, some are suggesting that a new wooden coaster could be coming to Sesame Place. Kid-friendly wooden coasters are nothing new; we’ve seen rides like Woodstock Express and Idlewild’s Rollo Coaster. Personally, I’m predicting something like Roar-O-Saurus at New Hampshire’s Storyland; a small coaster that kids will get a kick out of and enthusiasts will happily seek to ride. For now though, the only way to find out what the park will receive is to wait until their announcement on September 20th.

Here’s some pretty big news out of California’s Great America. The park is already teasing there twenty eighteen attraction. A construction marker has what appear to be white tire tracks leading up to it. Also, the marker itself has “2018” written on one side and “SR1” written on the other.

So what exactly does SR1 mean? Well, according to the state of California’s DMV SR-1 refers to a traffic accident report. and this is a ride at California’s Great America after all. Moreover, there’s a couple of car models named SR1; one is a Peugeot convertible and the other is a small race car so this ride most likely has a vehicle theme. Is it possible that California’s Great America is going to install more souped up version of the Backlot Stunt Coaster? Well, so far the coaster is said to be around twice as tall as the typical Backlot Stunt Coaster, so if it is a similar ride, it will indeed be a lot larger.

Besides RMC Mean Streak and RMC Hurler, Cedar Fair has two other coasters planned for next year. One of which is a completely new type of coaster while the other one is made by a manufacturer they haven’t worked with in recent history. If this isn’t a new type of coaster, then which manufacturer is set to make a comeback with this one? Let’s think about this for a second…

Intimidator 305, Intamin’s last coaster for Cedar Fair.

On one hand, Intamin is a company many enthusiasts would like to see return to the Cedar Fair chain. The last time Intamin made a coaster for Cedar Fair was back in 2010 with Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion. If Intamin is building this new mysterious ride, then what kind of coaster is it?

According to documents from the city of Santa Clara, the new coaster is said to be around 110 ft. tall which just happens to be around the same height as Maverick at Cedar Point, just five feet taller. So is California’s Great America actually getting an Intamin blitz coaster? In my opinion, it’s definitely the most likely possibility.

Official permit regarding the coaster.

Imagine if Intamin was able to make a bigger and better version of Premier Rides’ Backlot Stunt Coaster. Honestly ,I can already see it being named something like “Road Rage” or maybe it’ll be a more clever name like “Mean Street.” At the end of the day though, this is all complete speculation, and the only way to find out what the park is really adding is just to be patient.

Big news out of Germany: world-renowned theme park Phantasialand is getting yet another major coaster, and this time, it’ll be a “world’s first” attraction. The park released the following video today announcing the new coaster named F.L.Y. It will be the longest flying coaster in the world and is currently estimated to open in 2018.

While the manufacturer is currently unannounced, the restraints shown in the concept art match those of a Vekoma Flying Dutchman. According to Dutch website Loopings, insiders have also claimed that this is indeed a Vekoma coaster. If this is true, this would be the first original Flying Dutchman model to open since Batwing at Six Flags America started operating in 2001.

So far, none of Vekoma’s Flying Dutchman models were designed as launch coasters. However, according to the 2006 Euro Attractions Show, Vekoma does in fact have a launched Flying Dutchman model; they just haven’t built one yet. Based on the coaster’s layout, it will start the launch while riders are still on their backs before using an immleman to switch to a flying position.

While Vekoma Flying Dutchman coasters aren’t as popular or desired among enthusiasts as B&M Flyers, they can still give great rides. Though I thought Nighthawk at Carowinds was just average, Firehawk at Kings Island really impressed me. It was an exciting coaster with thrilling inversions and I’d honestly be very interested to see Vekoma take on this concept again. There’s a lot more to Vekoma than SLCs and Boomerangs, you know.

However, considering the track record of prototype launch coasters, you might want to watch out for downtime or even a delayed opening before making plans to ride this. It’s entirely possible that Vekoma will get this new model working right off the bat, but the only way to know is to wait and see. Who knows? This could end up being the best flying coaster out there.